Revising Prose—Richard Lanham (2006, 5th edition)
In this full yet brief guide, Lanham sounds the major chords in the music of style and offers a "paramedic's" checklist for reviving unconscious prose.
On Writing Well: An informal guide to writing nonfiction—William Zinsser (2006, 25th anniversary edition)
Everyone should write to engage, interest and entertain. Zinsser shows us how he does it—and how we can do it.
Style: Lessons in clarity and grace—Joseph Williams & Joseph Bizup (2017, 12th edition)
Another timeless guide that teaches the writer's moral imperative: We must care enough for readers to write prose that we would wish to read.
Seductive Academic Writing—Danyal Freeman (2018)
Style guides and academic writing guides ignore or caution against writing with figures of speech. I show how and why the best academic writers populate their prose with the figures of speech that seduce.
Stylish Academic Writing—Helen Sword (2012)
The dime-a-dozen style guides neglect the creative impulse: the rhetorical tradition. Sword shows that writing creatively is as important as writing clearly and correctly. Watch her explain why creativity matters here.